Surprise! Bing actually works a little better in China than Google

Current relationship between China and Google notwithstanding, I've had interesting and inconsistent experiences with Google in Huaxia.  As a Linux user, Google is my primary search engine though I've used Bing frequently when I'm on a Windows 7 machine.  At the risk of being burned at the stake by Linux and Google users everywhere, I have no issues with Bing.  It's a useful search engine in its own right.  




Although Google.com is accessible, typing Google into your URL will always default to Google Hong Kong due to certain disagreements between the company and Chinese government.  Using Google Maps in China has its difficulties, particularly a banner indicating a warning blocking most of the map.   However, it works fine in most scenarios albeit slow like most overseas sites due to the Great Fire Wall of Huaxia.  To my consternation, Google Search (.com and .com.hk) is unwieldy and occasionally counter-productive due to speed issues and limited access (search results will occasionally trigger a timed out connection message).  It's as if the army behind the said Wall focuses on Google searches in particular.  Surprisingly, Bing works without such harness.  I felt somewhat put off when I had to pull up Bing, but to my surprise, Microsoft's little search engine worked without any issues.  Moreover, Bing has the option to choose either Domestic (ie. Chinese search results) or Overseas (ie. U.S. or Europe search results) editions. 


 

There are occasions when Google is its usual dependable and awesome self.  There are days, however, when no results will (or can't) pull up despite searching harmless text strings like "Fedora review" or "Mandarin schools."  Google does not have an option to switch to domestic or overseas results though there is an option to check pages from Hong Kong or switch to the default Google.com.  English-speaking users will be happy to know Google results are displayed in English unlike cn.Bing.com which prioritizes Chinese language sites first unless you change the edition.